High blood pressure and pregnancy questions...

[tankgirl73]

So hubby and I have sorta kinda started tossing around the idea of whether we want to have another baby, whether we could handle it.  ;)

Personally, I am longing for a wee babe, and I have "faith in the universe" that whatever is meant to be, yadda yadda.  But I've got some health concerns that make me hesitant.

Background:  My family has a history of high blood pressure.  Not the lifestyle-caused type.  The "nothing except medication seems to do a thing for it type."  Healthy weight, healthy diet, active lifestyle, it just goes higher and higher as we get older.

When I got pregnant with my daughter 5 years ago, my BP was still normal, but starting to rise.  Getting into 'high normal'.  One of the contraindications for midwife care was pre-existing HBP (this was in Ontario where midwifery is a regulated part of the health care system), but fortunately it stayed at a low-healthy level once I was pregnant.  I also took garlic pills throughout to help.

However... at 38 weeks, my BP suddenly spiked.  Like to 160/90 area.  When it stayed there, we made the reluctant decision to induce, and that necessitated a transfer to hospital and to the doctor's care (though my midwife stayed on in a doula role, and took over my care again as soon as the baby was born).  Once she was born, it dropped again back to my previous normal -- the high end of normal, but still 'normal'.

Then last year, I started noticing more frequent headaches and an odd kind of feeling... I checked my BP and it was in the 145/90 range.  Over the next little while, I monitored it and it stayed in that general area.  My dr advised that it was time to start medicating, before it got really high and started causing more serious problems.  We started with water pills which did NOTHING -- didn't surprise me because it's not due to diet or weight, but she had to start with the least invasive drug first.  :)  I'm now on Cozaar 50mg and it works BEAUTIFULLY, I'm really quite stunned how easily it works.  I stay in the 130-135/75-80 range, and when I don't take it it can go as high as 160/100 now.

So that's my concern about becoming pregnant again.  My baseline blood pressure is now quite high.  I would NOT be able to take Cozaar, it's not safe during pregnancy.  Honestly I'd be reluctant to take anything.  But if I didn't... my pressure might self-regulate in early pregnancy like it did before, but what if it doesn't?  What if it stays high, what if it's really unhealthy for me AND for the baby?  What if it spikes again?  

Also I'm not in Ontario anymore, there's no midwifery here in NB yet.  It's only JUST started to be introduced, the government has a small pilot program.  But if I'm not a perfect low-risk case, I wouldn't be able to get into that at all.  Before my BP became an issue, I was toying with the idea of going unassisted if I had another baby... if I can't have a midwife, I'd rather go unassisted than try to deal with the hospital system here, which is quite old-fashioned when it comes to birth...

But again, I'm no longer low-risk.  I don't think I'd be brave enough (or foolish enough) to attempt an unassisted home birth with risks of pre-eclampsia or whatever.  

I am trying to eat better and shed a few pounds, but honestly I don't think that will help much.  I already eat healthier than 90% of the population, my weight is only on the higher end of the healthy range (many folks would see me as skinny in fact).  

So I guess I'm just kind of ranting, kind of thinking out loud, but also just wondering about folks' thoughts on this.  Anyone with similar experiences, what did they do.  Would YOU have another pregnancy if you knew going into it that you would HAVE to deal with a bad hospital system and likely have high-risk complications?  Are there any other alternatives I don't know about?  (I've tried various natural remedies supposed to help HBP, they did nothing for me)

[tanyalynn]

Originally Posted by tankgirl73 Are there any other alternatives I don't know about?  (I've tried various natural remedies supposed to help HBP, they did nothing for me)

How much have you played around with supplemental magnesium?  Mag 2x/day helped my husband (it was quite a bit of mag, we slowly tapered up, didn't want to cause diarrhea, but he was probably taking 800 mg/day), 1x/day didn't do a thing. 

Playing around more, it looks like the magnesium is a band-aid for inflammation, when he switched to a low carb diet (not saying that's the only cause of inflammation, just an example for him), DH's BP dropped about 20 points, both systolic and diastolic, within say 3 weeks?   We already avoid gluten and dairy, I think DH is intolerant of gluten and I can see more easily in my kids, when they consume a food they're intolerant of, it depletes their magnesium fast, so I have to wonder if avoiding the no-gluten for DH was part of the reason we were able to reduce his BP so much so fast. 

Lots of personal examples there that may not be directly relevant, but maybe spur ideas that may be actually applicable to you?  I'm sorry I can't help with the rest of your question. 

[tankgirl73]

Pretty sure I've tried magnesium -- for other reasons, actually, not for HBP :) -- and don't recall seeing a difference, but I can certainly try a dedicated trial and see if anything happens.

I'm also low-dairy and low-gluten, though not completely "no".  I did go "no" for awhile and found no difference in my health overall (I have IBS so I was hoping that would help).  So I went back to eating it, but try to keep it in balance, follow some TF principles, lots of grass-fed and free-range meats, etc.  

Of course, the last time I tried no-gluten or low carb was back when my BP was still normal.  So I guess it can't hurt to try it again now!